THE UNIVERSITY of Port Elizabeth has signed a new two million rand funding agreement with a number of top information technology companies to continue support a Centre of Excellence, which includes the Computer Science and Information Systems and Physics departments. Jointly funding the two UPE Centres of Excellence are Telkom, Sun Microsystems, Aberdare Fibre Optic Cables and Corning Optical Fibre, as well as the Department of Trade and Industry. The CoE programme provides facilities that encourage young scientists and engineers to pursue their careers in South Africa. Telkom’s CoE programme is a collective effort between Telkom, the telecommunications industry and government to promote research in communications technology and allied social sciences. The partners concluded the agreement to fund UPE's two CoEs involved in Distributed Multimedia Applications and Optical Fibre Measurements Research projects this year. Telkom’s chief technical officer Reuben September has highlighted the value of its 14 Centres of Excellence (CoEs), saying they have assisted Telkom and its industry partners to successfully tackle technical teething problems and enhance efficiencies. Speaking at the launch of the Telkom-University of Port Elizabeth CoE today, September said the programme had helped to ensure that South Africa’s brightest young minds did not succumb to the “brain drain”. “Through the CoE programme, Telkom is proving that talented postgraduates do not have to leave South Africa to do exciting work,” added September. The CoE programme provides facilities that encourage young scientists and engineers to pursue their careers in South Africa. Education institutions and Telkom’s corporate partners also reap rewards, as the work undertaken at the CoEs is relevant to their research and business. Telkom account manager at Sun Microsystems SA, Willem Coetsee, said his company’s objective for the UPE CoE was to assist in developing various visualization tools which can enhance Telkom’s management of its customers’ enterprise networks. "The system has been developed to assist in research of deliverable factors such as developing more user-friendly systems for customers, adding mobile computing features and providing information of large datasets in a more visually friendly format, all in a more local, South African context," Coetsee explained. UPE’s CoE head, Prof Janet Wesson, said the re-launch of the CoE represented a significant indication of support by industry sponsors, and would have a positive effect on the research profile of the university as a whole, as well as the two departments involved (Computer Science & Information Systems, and Physics). “Industry funding and research collaboration, as evidenced by the CoE project, are essential to ensure the production of postgraduate students and research that meet the needs of the South African industry,” said Prof Wesson. Telkom CoEs are aimed at creating partnerships between historically disadvantaged and advantaged tertiary education institutions. Institutions are paired, with a previously disadvantaged institution sharing a CoE with its formerly well-off counterpart to ensure skills transfer on joint communications research. September said the pairing of universities to share resources and expertise had already paid dividends, with both the University of Western Cape and Fort Hare having recently opened their independent Centres of Excellence. September also sounded a clarion call to South African tertiary institutions to expand their Telkom centres by partnering with their African counterparts so Africa could take its rightful place in the ICT world.